Marvel’s Welcome to the X-Men panel at New York Comic Con discussed “X-Men: Serve & Protect,” the newest “X-Men” storylinefrom Victor Gischler and Chris Bachalo, and Editor Axel Alonso revealed that the fallout from the “Curse of the Mutants” storyline will be a miniseries called “Wolverine and Jubilee.”Kathryn Immonen is providing the script for “Wolverine and Jubilee,” and Phil Noto is drawing the four-issue series dedicated to the aftermath of “Curse of the Mutants,” Jubilee’s vampiric infection, and the choices that Jubilee and Wolverine will make and how that changes their relationship. This’ll be a long-awaited return to prominence, or at least a return from relative obscurity, for Jubilee, who has had a rough time of it since “House of M” took her powers away many years ago. Editor Jeanine Schaefer described “Wolverine and Jubilee” as “the ‘Batman & Robin’ of the X-Men.”

Launching alongside “Wolverine & Jubilee: Curse of the Mutants” in January is “X-Men: Serve & Protect,” the newest “X-Men” storylinefrom Victor Gischler and Chris Bachalo. Rather than battling werewolves or ghosts next, the X-Men are going on the road and teaming up with Spider-Man to take down one of his biggest villains. The panelists explained that the X-Men want to be the kind of superheroes that the world needs in the Heroic Age, but it’s clear that crawling back from the vampire onslaught isn’t going to be as simple as fighting a couple supervillains over a weekend.

Alonso said he and his teams are “taking steps to get the X-Men deep into the Marvel Universe.” This means putting them up against several Marvel heroes and villains over the course of “X-Men.” All of these stories are being used to build to a story two years from now, and the team-ups are going to keep building up the X-Men’s reputation in the Marvel Universe.

Gillen went on to talk about his “Generation Hope” series with Salva Espin. The series is about “the future and generation gaps, and romance and violence.” Gillen said those concepts are some of his favorite things in the world, and he’s clearly enjoying writing the miniseries.

Jason Aaron, writer of “Wolverine,” teased upcoming events in his series, which stars a demonically-possessed Wolverine. Scott Summers has a plan to take down Wolverine, who has been mind-controlled and used for evil purposes several times, so an upcoming issue will feature Wolverine vs the X-Men. In Marjorie Liu’s “X-23,” Laura is going to team up with Gambit as a kind of mentor/partner as she comes to grips with who she is and what she was programmed for.

Rick Remender, Jerome Opeña, and Dean White’s “Uncanny X-Force” has officially sold out at Diamond, and the entire panel seemed very pleased with the book itself. The first arc concerns X-Force going after Apocalypse, who has been reborn into the form of a child. The team is “in for a big fight,” according to Remender, just due to the “size and scope” of Apocalypse. The first four issues comprise the first arc, with the Apocalypse storyline forming the basis for the future stories.

Peter David teased several upcoming stories in “X-Factor” that will tie-in to rea-life events. The writer said he likes “shaking things up and having people re-examine characters” by revealing new events about their past. Upcoming stories include an issue about a teen who was bullied in high school and committed suicide, which is particularly timely given the recent spate of American teen suicides hitting the news over the past few weeks. Another story involves Monet revealing that she’s Muslim, and the effect that that revelation has on the team and the readers.

Marvel’s Arune Singh teased a brand new X-Men related project as the panel wound down. “Age of X” premieres in January 2011, and it’s going to be “a huge, huge event for the X-Men. It will be the end of mutantkind as you know it,” and will theoretically change the X-Men forever. The title is an intentional allusion to “Age of Apocalypse,” the ’90s storyline that completely revamped and recreated the X-Men for several months, and Marvel intends to match it in scope and impact.

The Q&A portion of the presentation included an angry Sgt. Rock, or perhaps generic army cosplayer, who had one question about Frankencastle for Rick Remender: “What were you thinking?” Remender explained that he wanted to tell a story that spoke to the character, wasn’t boring, was fresh, wasn’t a bummer, was a good read, and that he “could get defensive about when questioned.” Sgt. Rock said the real bummer was that everyone he knows who read “Punisher” dropped the book. Remender said that that was a bummer, too, because they missed a good story. Sgt. Rock, clearly having lost a battle for the first time since WWII, walked away shaking his head. Of course, longtime ComicsAlliance readers know that Frankencastle has no place in the core Marvel universe.

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on .
To keep your personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you.
To activate your account, please confirm your password.
When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites.

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing VIP profile. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://comicsalliance.com using your original account information.